Colorado is leading the way in cooperative law

There are lots of reasons to love Colorado – the sunshine, the mountains, Colfax Avenue and all its splendid weirdness, just to name a few. While those things are all great, the coolest thing about Colorado is that it’s leading the way in innovative uses of the cooperative structure, in no small part thanks to our incredibly flexible cooperative statutes. Any business can be a cooperative in Colorado. This means that when we talk with a new client about entity formation, in addition to discussing the merits of traditional business structures, we also get to educate them about cooperatives and help them decide if it might be the right structure for them. While that in itself is pretty cool, Colorado is one of the few states that has adopted the Uniform Limited Cooperative Association Act (“ULCAA”). The ULCAA gives cooperatives the flexibility that is most commonly associated with LLCs, including having investors that exclusively make capital contributions. Having an investor member class can make the cooperative structure feasible for companies that would normally have to forgo it because they need to raise outside capital on more flexible terms. As lawyers, this means we get to collaborate with our clients and come up with creative solutions for structuring the investor class, creating profitable exits when there is no public offering or sale on the horizon, and attracting investors – all while keeping the cooperative mission at the forefront. Basically, it equates to a lot of intellectual gymnastics and brainstorming sessions, which is when being a lawyer is the most fun and where we offer the most value to our clients. If I’ve piqued your interest, my colleagues, Linda and Jason, have written a wonderful blog that breaks down in more detail why Colorado is leading the way in cooperative law. A big thank you to Fifty by Fifty for publishing the blog and producing great content to advance employee ownership.